Could there have been significantly less known at the time about what the Japanese themelves called their planes than about the Germans? Or maybe Japanese names were simply seen as less easy to pronounce?Why did the allies have reporting names for Japanese aircraft in ww2 but not for German aircraft?
Could there have been significantly less known at the time about what the Japanese themelves called their planes than about the Germans? Or maybe Japanese names were simply seen as less easy to pronounce?
Wasn't the 109 also known as the Emil? As for Japanese names, it would be interesting to know what types of planes were given what name. I know that zeros were zekes, and twin engine bombers [like what Yamomoto was in when he got shot down] were bettys, but what were kates, oscars, vals, jills, etc; I believe mavis was a PBY type plane.
Wasn't the 109 also known as the Emil? As for Japanese names, it would be interesting to know what types of planes were given what name. I know that zeros were zekes, and twin engine bombers [like what Yamomoto was in when he got shot down] were bettys, but what were kates, oscars, vals, jills, etc; I believe mavis was a PBY type plane.
That's the WWII German military phonetic word for the letter E, Much like the word "Echo" today. It would have been used to denote the Bf-109E model.
Fighters had male names (Zeke, Tony, Frank, Oscar, etc).
Bombers had female names (Nell, Betty, Peggy, Val, Kate, etc).
Training and transport aircraft were named after types of tree (hickory etc).
Yes. Me-109s could also be referred to as Friedrich, Gustav, Konrad or Kurfürst. Oddly, as far as I know, the Germans never gave similar nicknames to any other aircraft.
Wasn't the 109 also known as the Emil? As for Japanese names, it would be interesting to know what types of planes were given what name. I know that zeros were zekes, and twin engine bombers [like what Yamomoto was in when he got shot down] were bettys, but what were kates, oscars, vals, jills, etc; I believe mavis was a PBY type plane.